My pet peeve is the misuse of the word "literally." People use it for emphasis or as a synonym for the word "actually." I first noticed this on 9/11/01 when people were saying the twin towers "literally" fell to the ground. Well of course they did... if they had figuratively fallen to the ground it wouldn't be a tragedy would it? Other misuses I've overheard are "it was literally raining cats and dogs," and "I was literally scared to death."